at

Pon

i

—-

pine infected by the pine beetle in her UNBC office.

‘DOCTOR Kathy Lewis examines samples of lodgepole

UNBC tracks”

pine beetle

deterioration

RESEARCH conducted at the University of
Northern British Columbia has put a time
line on how fast, and how much the quality
of pine beetle wood deteriorates.

“Led by UNBC Forestry professor Kathy

Lewis, a research team has produced the
first study of its kind on the-rate of deterio-

‘ ration and fall of lodgepole pine infected by
~ the beetle in British Columbia. 7
_ The study found the greatest changes in —

wood quality happen in the first two years

of mortality. After this initial decline in
wood quality, however, there is only minor
additional degradation before the tree falls
down.

“We're not saying that-after two years
the wood is'of no use, but the changes in
wood quality affect the range of -wood
products that can be manufactured‘and the
technologies used for production,” says Dr.
Lewis. “This information is vital to plan-
ning the timing and distribution’of salvage
harvesting operations to recover the great-

“est-possible value from the wood.”

It’s no big deal being a female
~-trucker, local chip hauler says

By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN

TERRI SOUCIE didn’t mean to
become a truck driver, but when

she found herself starting a family ,

at a young age she needed to find
a way to support, herself and her
two young sons.

At 19 years old, after being

taught the ins and outs of truck-
ing by her father, himself a truck-.

er, Soucie bought a rig and hit the
road. She didn’t mind the work

.and the money was good — un-

til the Skeena Cellulose sawmill
here shut down in 2001.
“o Like. dozens of others in the

_ logging industry devestated by

_ the closure of the mill, Soucie lost
her truck after months of making
payments waiting for the mill to
istart up again.

* “A lot of guys were older and
had wives at home and they took
off and went out of town but that
wasn’t realiy an option for me,”

Soucie recalls about the closure °

of SCI.

That forced her to take other’.
. jobs until last year when she got
behind the wheel again, working

as a chip truck driver for Excel.

She’s one of three women.

driving for the company and
though she admits it’s unusual to

be a woman in that industry, her

gender is certainly not an issue.
“[ live-in a ‘small town and
went to school here and a lot
of people: 1 work with I went to
school. with,” she says. “There’s
the odd comment here and there

‘but all in all most of the men up :

here are fairly, decent. I?ve never
had any troubles withthe guys
IP’ve.worked with.”

Learning how to react in an ar-

ray of situations and dealing with -

the northwest’s inclement weath-
‘er were critical skills to develop

- before she-got into the industry

and she’s proved she can hold her

‘Terri Soucie. .

own.
“1 think the training is key, my
dad trained me really well,” she

~ says. “So 99 per cent ‘of the stuff

that came up I could deal with, for
instance chaining up and winter
driving.” ,

Ensuring BC's Forests Are.In:

Sheena Sawmills

A Division of

West Fraser Misted |

fe)

National |
Forest Week
Sept. 24- 30, 2006

Natural Resources:
Connected To Our People And Our Land |

Peg- -Rin Enterprises Ltd.
~ Phone: 635-5329 Fax: 635-5334 :
Shop: 3184 Kofoed Dr., Terrace, B.C. V8G ams

° Sandblasting
° Painting
¢ Welding ©
° Truck Parts

e Heavy Duty Truck Repairs.

¢ Hiab Service

¢ Government Safety Inspection .
°¢ dpen.6. Days A Week

Paint st Shop: 635- 3496
Paint Shop: 1679 Kenworth St.,